‘The Bad Batch’ Spoiler Discussion: ‘Spoils of War’ and ‘Ruins of War’ Bring Back Familiar Tones but Could Have Been Deeper
A little over a year after we last saw them (or two in-galaxy months, according to Jennifer Corbett), the Bad Batch and their spiritual daughter, Omega, are back. The first two episodes of the second season dropped today on Disney Plus, but we were fortunate enough to see the first 14 in advance — you can check out our non-spoilery thoughts here.
The opening of the season was pretty much perfect. It was probably not intended this way, but coming out just a few weeks after Andor wrapped its first season, the massive shift in tone and color palette worked great for the series. It reminded me of Rian Johnson’s explanation for the setting of Glass Onion: “I wrote it during lockdown, which is probably part of the reason why it takes place on a Greek island. ‘FADE IN: Greek island’… that’s where I wanted to be.” And that’s pretty much where we are in The Bad Batch after the 12 bleak episodes of Andor. The majority, if not all, of the opening scene had been screened for Star Wars Celebration attendees back in late May, and it immediately (and literally) hits the ground running.
It was an interesting way to kick off the new adventure — one would have thought that given the climactic season 1 ending, we’d be dealing with the aftermath of the events in Kamino. Not so much, though, at least for now. No “Previously, on The Bad Batch” segment played before the opening because it wasn’t needed. The question now is: can the Lucasfilm Animation team pull off enough interesting stories to keep us hooked before we get back to where we left the main plot off in season 1? Where is Crosshair?
This is a question that I asked myself throughout both episodes, and that was never answered. The crew goes back to Cid to get their next assignment, and we meet Phee Genoa, voiced by the ever-recognizable Wanda Sykes. It’s no more than a cameo for now, but we’ll definitely be meeting her again soon. We learn about their new mission, which is of course advertised as possibly being the last one, and it involves a trip to Serenno, Count Dooku’s homeworld, where there are spoils of war up for grabs… if they can beat the Empire at it.
The Bad Batch has always worked best when it’s focused on its characters and their dynamics. Dee Bradley Baker’s voice range is absolutely the heart that pumps blood into the show, but Omega is the emotional beat. There are a few hints throughout the first two episodes, especially in the second one, at Omega being haunted by her place in the galaxy. Her birth home is now under the ocean, and her family is a ragtag group that will move hell or high water to keep her safe, no matter the cost. It’s a fascinating character study that was barely touched upon in the episodes. One of my favorite moments was, undoubtedly, when she found a toy and didn’t even know what that term meant. Her arc in this episode was about learning that she’s not just there to help them get the job done, but that she’s also a very valuable member of the team. However, the show had a lot of characters to handle, and I feel like they did a disservice to most of them by spreading too thin despite a 45-minute total runtime, which was definitely not needed for this specific story.
It’s especially interesting that Omega barely spent any time with Hunter in these episodes, considering their dynamics from season 1. Instead, Omega was forced to open up to Tech, who is very much not a feelings kind of guy. It did feel like a missed opportunity, though, that the writers didn’t use this to give Tech some development and to humanize him a bit more. If we are to spend 16 episodes with these characters, we might as well learn what’s going on inside their minds. However, I do appreciate the camaraderie between the members of the team, and how they are obviously on the same page on many fronts, especially when it comes to Omega and how important she is to them.
The weakest point for me in these episodes was the fact that they weren’t up against any tangible threat. There were random clone troopers shooting at the team, and Omega, Wrecker, and Tech escaping the ship proved to be a more complicated task than they initially thought (I especially appreciated the Imperials reading their minds and dropping the escape pods), but Crosshair’s involvement was missed, and that significantly affected our character’s arcs. Besides getting the mission done, there wasn’t really a motivation for them to (effectively) steal the treasures, which causes a disconnect with the audience because of the lack of emotional attachment. The second episode also tried to introduce some morality questions about being as bad as the Empire by stealing valuables from Serenno’s people, but they were immediately brushed off before the writers could give a satisfying answer.
All in all, with the first two episodes, The Bad Batch continues to prove that it is an enjoyable show to put on while having breakfast on Wednesday mornings, and it works especially well as content filler while we wait for The Mandalorian season 3 to really bring us home.
The third episode of season 2 will drop next Wednesday, so stay tuned for our discussion!
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
